2008 Rosh Hashana Sermon Day 1 Kol Nidre Sermon Yom Kippur Sermon
SECOND DAY ROSH HASHANAH
Rabbi Ronald L. Androphy
East Meadow Jewish Center
October 1, 2008
Our Torah reading this morning consisted of one of the most troubling and disturbing stories contained in the Torah. God, as a test of our patriarch Abraham’s faith, demanded that Abraham take his beloved son, Isaac, and sacrifice him to God. How could God demand such a hideously cruel action from Abraham? And since we, the readers, were informed by the Torah that this was all a test, doesn’t God seem like a sadist to put Abraham through this emotional turmoil, when God was going to call off the sacrifice anyway? And what about Abraham? Wasn’t he all too willing to obey God and offer his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice? Would any of us even consider the possibility of making any of our children a burnt offering to God?
Some commentators suggest that one of the purposes of this story is to demonstrate that God does NOT want child sacrifice. Abraham, after all, lived in a world in which child sacrifice was the norm. According to this school of thought, God wanted to make it absolutely clear to Abraham that the God He believed in does not desire the blood or body of children as offerings.
If it is indeed true that one of the functions of the story of the Akedah is to teach that our God does not demand nor does He want or desire child sacrifice, then, my friends, this is a lesson that some of our ancestors failed to learn. I will let you in on an unpleasant Biblical secret: It seems that all too many of our ancestors did offer up their children as sacrifices. Can you believe that? Jewish parents sacrificing their children on an altar to God?
You might ask me: Rabbi, what proof do you have? I would answer you: the proof is in the Bible itself. First, there are those passages in the book of Jeremiah in which the prophet condemns his contemporaries for offering their firstborn as sacrifices to pagan gods. The Jews who lived in Jeremiah’s time, at the beginning of the sixth century B.C.E., were so sinful that they not only abandoned the worship of the One True God, but they embraced idol worship and even offered their children as sacrifices to those pagan deities. As a matter of fact, what is the Yiddish word for “hell?” -- It’s “Gehennom.” Do you know why the Yiddish word for “hell” is “Gehennom”? -- Because, as Jeremiah tells us, the place where our ancestors offered their children as burnt sacrifices was the Hinnom Valley, in Hebrew “Gay Hinnom,” or, with an Ashkenazic pronunciation, “Gehennom.” The Gay Hinnom (Hinnom Valley), hell, incidentally, is in Jerusalem, and, if you would like to see it, join me on my next EMJC Israel Pilgrimage, and we will go to hell together, just as participants in our previous trips have done.
But I digress. What most Jews do not realize is that some of our ancestors actually believed, despite today’s Torah reading, that our God wanted them to sacrifice their children to Him, especially their first-born sons, which distresses me greatly because I am a first-born son. Seriously, there is ample evidence from the Book of Exodus, the Book of Micah, the Book of Ezekiel, and other Biblical texts that some of our ancestors actually thought God had commanded that they offer him their children as burnt offerings, and apparently at least some – perhaps many -- of them actually did. And if you read one passage in the Torah as apparently they read it -- literally – they may not have been wrong…
What would induce a person to even imagine that God would demand the sacrifice of his or her child?
What is sacrifice? Is it not the giving up, or yielding, of something precious, something of value? And if one is making a sacrifice to God, wouldn’t a person think that God would want the very item that the person considers to be the most valuable? Wouldn’t our ancestors think that if God wants sacrifice that they should give Him their most precious possession? And what could possibly be more precious to a parent than his or her children? In my opinion, it is entirely reasonable that ancient Israelites thought God wanted them to sacrifice their children to Him.
Entirely reasonable, but wrong. As today’s Torah reading made clear, God did not want Isaac or any other child. The prophets Micah, Jeremiah, and others emphatically declared that God does not want child sacrifice.
Yet, God wants sacrifice. I know that that is a difficult concept for us moderns to comprehend, but, if you have any knowledge of the Bible, you know that sacrifice was an essential part of Israelite worship of God. There were the communal sacrifices – some brought daily; others offered on Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, and the holidays, as our readings from the second Torah scroll indicate. Then there were the sacrifices that individuals were required to bring and offer to God after various events that occurred in one’s life. As you probably know, most sacrifices were animals -- cattle, sheep, lambs, rams, goats, and, occasionally birds. Why? – Because yielding these animals to God was a real economic sacrifice on the part of our ancestors, most of whom were not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination; in fact, many of them were probably subsistence farmers and poor shepherds. To offer an animal to God was a real sacrifice; yet our ancestors made these sacrifices willingly out of their love and devotion for God.
And what about us? What kind of sacrifice does God want of us? What should we offer God? Which of our possessions should we give to God? God clearly does NOT want us to offer our children to Him as burnt sacrifices. We can no longer present animals to God because we no longer have the Temple in Jerusalem, the only place at which we are permitted to make animal sacrifices. What do we possess that would be pleasing to God? What should we offer Him?
Before I give you the answer – or at least what I consider to be the answer – it seems to me that we must fulfill three criteria in determining what it is that we should sacrifice to God.
The first condition reflects the concept of sacrifice. As we have already stated, sacrifice means giving God something precious to us, something that we value. It must be something that we cherish, something we treasure. Sacrifice means that we yield something dear to us to God.
The second criterion pertains to the meaning of the English word “sacrifice.” The word “sacrifice” derives from two Latin words, “sacer” and “facio,” literally, “to make holy.” Whatever it is that we sacrifice to God must be something that we can make holy, make sacred; it must be something that we can sanctify. It must be something that we can transform from its secular existence into something hallowed.
The third quality that our offering must possess pertains to the meaning of the Hebrew word for sacrifice. The Hebrew word for “sacrifice” is “קרבן.” קרבן, however, comes from the Hebrew root meaning “to be brought closer,” and reflects that Biblical ideology or theology that by bringing a sacrifice one comes closer to God. Whatever we offer God should bring us closer to, and make us experience a closer relationship with, our God.
So let me ask each of you: what do you possess that fulfills all three criteria: first, yielding it to God means that you give up something precious; second, it is something secular that can be made holy; and, third, it is something that by offering it, you can become closer to God?
Other than our children, whom God does not want, what item meets all three conditions?
Is it our money? Well, we can argue that our financial resources do meet all three standards: money is something we value and to offer it is to lose something of value, especially in this current economic environment; money is a secular item that, if we use it for, say, tzedakah or to support synagogues or Jewish education, can be put to holy purposes; and money, again in the form of tzedakah, can bring us into a closer relationship with God.
But I would suggest that there is something even more precious to us than money that God wants us to offer, to sacrifice, in service to Him. (But, if you want to offer God money, please feel free to do so, and make the check payable to the East Meadow Jewish Center.)
Seriously, what do we possess, other than our children, that is more precious than money, an item that can be made holy, that can bring us closer to God, that God really and truly wants us to offer Him?
The answer is: Time. God wants us to sacrifice our time to His service.
Doesn’t time meet all three criteria of sacrifice? Isn’t time very precious to us? Time, I would suggest, is one of the most valuable items we think we possess. Time is more valuable than money: You can make more money, but you cannot acquire more time.
Let me prove to you how precious time is. How many people here today feel that you have enough time to complete everything you want to accomplish? How many of you feel that you have enough time to do everything you want to do?
The fact is that time has become an incredibly valuable commodity. Few of us feel we have enough of it. After all, people today are working longer hours than they did just twenty years ago. Few people today work just from 9 to 5. Our work or professions take up an immense portion of our days. For those who work in the City or outside the immediate East Meadow area, there is the additional commuting time that is lost to us. We have many other commitments and responsibilities. We try to carve out recreation time, exercise time, family time, relaxation time. We over-program our children with extra-curricular activities, music lessons, ballet lessons, sports, in addition to the required Hebrew School and Junior Congregation attendance. The fact is we are so busy and our lives are so frenetic, that our time has become extraordinarily precious. We use such phrases as, “My time is not my own.” And this lack of time does not end when we retire. How many of our retirees have told me, “You know, Rabbi. I am busier now that I retired than I ever was when I was working!”
It was once thought that computers would give us more time since they enable us to perform complex tasks with great alacrity. But we soon discovered that the time computers save us is more than offset by the new tasks we perform on them. It was once thought that the internet would save us time by placing information at our fingertips instantaneously. But we know from personal experience that the internet has an insidious way of taking away our free time as many of us spend more and more of our waking hours – and some of the time we should be sleeping -- online, some of us addictively. How many people here today spend more than two hours a day on non-work-related activities on the internet?
It was once that Blackberries and other personal portable communications devices would give us more time by making us more efficient. But we soon discovered that cell phones, Blackberries, iPhones make us work longer hours as our offices, bosses, supervisors, and clients can now communicate with us twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. In short, rather than granting us more time, as first thought, modern electronic devices, for all the benefits they do bring us, have actually gobbled up our free time, making that time all the more precious. I would venture to say that time is one of the most valuable commodities we possess, and its sacrifice is what we should be offering to God Time is an incredibly precious commodity, and if we are to offer God something precious, something valuable, time is certainly what we should offer.
And what about the other two criteria of sacrifice? Time meets those conditions, too. Time is basically secular, but we can make it holy by how we use or spend our time. And proper use of our time can also bring us closer to God.
So how should we sacrifice our time to God? What form should that sacrifice take that would sanctify that precious commodity which is our time and bring us closer to God?
I would like to make several suggestions about how we can offer our time to God.
First, spend more time with our families. Family time is sacred time, and take it from one who is sometimes guilty of this, families don’t spend enough quality time together.
That family time is so valuable is illustrated by the following story. A man comes home after a long day at work and is greeted at the door by his young son. “Daddy,” the boy said, “Can I ask you a question?” “Sure, son,” the father replied. “Daddy,” the boy asked, “How much money do make an hour?” The father became very upset with his son. “That’s none for your business. I don’t discuss how much I make with anyone, especially not a child.” And the father stalked away. Later that night the father felt contrite that he had gotten upset at his son for asking an innocent question and went to tuck him into bed. “Son,” the father said, “I’m sorry I yelled at you before. I make about twenty-five dollars an hour.” “That’s okay, Daddy,” the boy responded, “But can you lend me ten dollars?” “Sure, son,” the father replied, “But what do you need the ten dollars for?” “Well, Dad,” the boy answered, “I’ve already saved fifteen dollars. I figured that if you lend me ten, I’ll have twenty-five dollars and then maybe I can hire you to spend an hour with me.”
Okay, the story is a little cheesy, but the point is clear. Family time is both valuable and invaluable. In fact, the higher “truth” of this story is illustrated by a news report I heard on the radio exactly nine days ago: A new study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicates that families who eat dinner together are healthier, smarter, safer and stronger. Home-cooked meals generally provide more balanced nutrition and fewer empty calories. Having dinner with your kids also provides the opportunity for meaningful conversation, bonding and face time. As a result, families who eat together have children who do better in school, and are less likely to become involved with alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs.
I probably shared this true story with you many years ago, but it is worthwhile mentioning again; it is a story that I frequently tell to couples whom I marry, particularly ones who are not members of our shul:
One year when I was serving as a rabbi in Elmira, the local family court judge was asked to deliver the keynote address at a major conference of family court judges. This was a great honor for a little hick-town like Elmira, so, as you can imagine, it made the front page of the local newspaper. Several months later, when the judge delivered his speech, the newspaper carried either a summary or transcript of his talk. In his address, the judge (who was not Jewish, by the way) claimed, based on his thirty years experience on the Family Court bench, that the courts would see far few problems if families spent more time together. He claimed that he was going to make a radical proposal: that families literally take out a calendar and block out periods of time that the family would spend together. He called this “sacred family time.” Of course, we Jews realize that the judge’s proposal of “sacred family time” is neither radical nor new. We have known about sacred family time for over 3,200 years. We even have a special name for it; we call it “Shabbos.”
Therefore, my second recommendation is to spend Shabbos together as a family, or, at the very least, to spend Friday Night together. Ladies, if you would light Shabbat candles at the proper time as your way of offering a few moments of your time to God, and gentlemen, if you or your wife or one of your children makes Kiddush, and if one of you makes “Motzi” over a challah, and have a Friday night dinner together -- this is a wonderful offering to God that is truly precious, that sanctifies time, and that can bring you and your entire family closer to God.
Does it work? You bet it does, and you don’t have to take my word for it. So many times I meet couples I have married who heeded my advice about making Friday Night special, holy, sacred, family time. In fact, just a few months ago I received a beautiful email from a couple I married here back in 1999. They now live in Pittsburgh. He is an MD/PhD, currently on a three-year pediatric critical care fellowship. She has a PhD and is currently doing post-doctorate work long-distance at Yale, in addition to teaching two classes at Chatham College. A busier couple you will not find. In the email they thanked me especially for two recommendations I had made to them: first, for encouraging them to make Friday night sacred family time because it has become so important to them and has strengthened the fabric of their family and their lives together. And, second, for encouraging them to have a lot of children; they have three boys, ages 7, 3, and 1; they even sent me attached pictures of the three children dressed in their Purim costumes. The point I am making is this: they sacrifice some of their precious time by observing Friday night Shabbat, and it has been an absolute blessing for them in many ways. It can work for you and your family, too. Offer your Friday nights to God.
My third suggestion for sacrificing time to God is: come to shul, and if you have children at home, attend together with your family. This is where we feel a special closeness to God. This is where we feel spiritually ennobled. This is where we communicate with God.
I have already mentioned that animal sacrifice was the way our ancestors worshiped God. We can no longer make such offerings to God because, as I told you, the Temple in Jerusalem has been destroyed, and the Temple is the only legitimate place we can make such burnt offerings. However, the Rabbis of the Talmud taught that prayer is the replacement for animal sacrifice. Just as the Torah commands us to make the requisite offerings to God, so, too, by extension we are obligated to pray to God. While personal prayer is always great, Judaism views communal prayer as the ideal. And for us, communal prayer means coming to shul to daven. Try it, you might actually be moved by the experience.
And communal prayer happens to be beneficial in other ways, too. You have probably read of the studies that show that people who attend church or synagogue regularly and are, therefore, involved in a community of pray-ers, live longer, happier, healthier lives than those who do not. While the evidence, I admit, is not incontrovertible, nonetheless, a sizeable body of evidence points to the benefit of sacrificing our time to God by praying in a community such as a synagogue.
And I want to make a special appeal for assistance with our evening minyans. We pride ourselves here at the East Meadow Jewish Center with mustering a minyan morning and evening every day. When I first came to the East Meadow Jewish Center twenty-five years ago and for many years after, our morning minyan was weak, and sometimes we would have to make a call or two to garner the required ten; but for the evening minyans we had no problems. Today, for some reason, the situation is completely reversed: While our morning minyan, thank God, is solid, thanks to the fact that it draws people from other shuls, our evening minyans are in trouble. Please, I am appealing to the men here today, and women are welcome to attend as well.. Please give us just one evening a week – I’ll even take one evening every other week – and come to shul to help make a minyan. We daven on Monday through Thursday evenings at 8:00 p.m.; we will have you out and on your way in 10-12 minutes. Certainly 10-12 minutes is a small sacrifice of time to make to God and to your fellow congregants who might need to say Kaddish. 10-12 minutes that’s it. The evening minyans on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights vary with the seasons; the times are always listed in the Observer, and those services last from 50 minutes on Friday night to a little over an hour on Saturday nights (but we feed you in between) to 20-25 minutes on Sunday nights. Again, certainly not a demanding sacrifice to make to God. If you feel uncomfortable because you haven’t been to a minyan before, we will make you feel welcome and comfortable. You don’t read Hebrew? -- no problem; we’ll show you how to follow in English, and if you want to learn Hebrew, we will arrange for someone to teach you. Please, I beg of you, do not let this hallmark of the East Meadow Jewish Center die, because if a shul like ours cannot garner a minyan, it is not a hopeful sign. Sacrifice a few minutes a week for God.
The fourth suggestion I offer concerning sacrificing your time to God is to study. That’s right: spend a little time each week learning about some aspect of Judaism: Bible, Talmud, Jewish history, Jewish thought, Jewish literature, whatever. Attend an Adult Education course here at the East Meadow Jewish Center, participate in a Melton Program or a JLearn class, or just go to the library -- either our own East Meadow Jewish Center library or the East Meadow Public Library -- and take out and read any book about Judaism. At the public library you can find many of them in the 200s section. Don’t know what book or text to study? -- Just ask our shul librarian, or email or call me, tell her or me what you might be interested in, and she or I will try to make a suggestion. Remember, if prayer is how we communicate our thoughts and feelings to God, then study of a Jewish text is how God communicates His will to us. As the great Rabbi Hillel once said to the man who asked him to teach him the entire Torah while he stood on one foot, זיל גמור -- go and study.
Of course, if you want to make a truly great sacrifice to God that involves much study, how about considering becoming a rabbi? You know, many students change their career goals. Look at me: As my parents can tell you, I was literally three weeks away from embarking on a joint Law and Business degree program when I changed my horizons and decided to enter rabbinical school instead. Additionally, today many people are not satisfied with the work or the profession in which they have been engaged for what might be a few or many years. They want to leave the profession or job they no longer enjoy, and, if they could, enter a different field or profession. They are called second-career professionals, and graduate schools are filled with brave men and women who have courageously struck out on a new career path. Graduate schools, including the Jewish Theological Seminary, love these second-career people because they possess a seriousness and significant life experience that students fresh out of college just do not have.
If you really want to make a second-career sacrifice for God, or even a first career dedication to God, consider the rabbinate. It is certainly a meaningful profession, if there ever was one. It involves sacrificing one’s time to God and the Jewish people every single day. It is a difficult profession on many different levels, but one which brings tremendous satisfaction. If you are interested in exploring a first- or second-career in the rabbinate as a way of sacrificing on behalf of the Jewish people, please speak to me. Remember that there are many aspects of Jewish work in which rabbis are active: congregations like ours, congregations in other parts of the country or the world, Hillel work, Jewish education, chaplaincy, Jewish communal work, and so much more. Speak to me and I will be happy to direct you to the Jewish Theological Seminary or other rabbinic school that would be appropriate for you.
My final suggestion for sacrificing some of our time to God is through tikkun olam, repairing the world and making it a better place. How can we do so? -- By becoming personally involved in helping others, through volunteer work for a worthwhile organization. There are numerous organizations in our general and Jewish communities that eagerly seek volunteers in this age of diminished volunteerism – organizations that provide a myriad of services to those in need, and which thus offer volunteers numerous opportunities to combine their own interests with helping others. Believe me, this is truly sacrifice because it not only means offering our precious time to others, but also allows us to make our time sacred and brings us closer to God. The Talmud teaches that we must emulate God: Just as God provides for the needy, we must provide for the needy. Just as God visits the sick, so, too must we visit the sick. Just as God clothes the naked, so, too, must we clothe the naked. And so on. Moreover, the Talmud declares that one who engages in acts of גמילות חסדים - acts of kindness towards others -- actually invokes God’s presence in this world. Can’t find an organization which fits your interest or needs? -- Call or email me, and I will help connect you with a group that will value your sacrifice of time.
My friends, time is one of the most precious of our possession. It is what God wants us to sacrifice to Him by making it holy. Whether it is by spending more quality time with our families, celebrating Shabbat together, coming to shul to daven, studying Jewish texts and subjects, volunteering in a social service organization, or in any other appropriate manner -- sacrificing our time can bring us closer to God, which, after all, is the goal of Judaism and the desideratum of religious and spiritual people everywhere. To quote an anonymous author:
This is the beginning of a new day.
God has given me this day to use as I
will.
I can waste it or use it for good.
What I do today is important, because
I am exchanging a day of my life for
it.
When tomorrow comes,
this day will be gone forever,
leaving in its place something
that I have traded for it.
I want it to be gain, not loss;
good not evil; success not failure;
in order that I shall not regret
the price I paid for it.
Sacrificing time to and for God, Judaism, and the Jewish people is never a waste of our time.
היום הרת עולם -- today, Rosh Hashanah, the world is re-created. Let us sacrifice our time wisely in the coming year so that we will enjoy spiritually enriching lives and a closer relationship with God and with Judaism. Amen.
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